Little House

Today is a better day than yesterday. Because I have friends who remind me.

Drove down to the Little House this afternoon, through the empty skies and fields and highways. It rained in Austin, but by the time I made it to the lake, the sky was golden. It was a good drive. I listened to Radiohead, rolled the window down and the cowboy hat kept my hair out of my eyes.

Cate made enchiladas, cheese ones, and sour cream green salsa chicken ones, and there was birthday cake and wine, and David got me bright carnations. The boys gave me a Matrix Reloaded poster, and when I kissed Jacob on the head he pretended to go blind. We sat in the hot tub for a long while, watching the heat lightning and the stars. The daddy long-legs walked along the edge of the railing, looking like something from a Tim Burton movie.

Watched Monsoon Wedding, which was really a happy movie about love, and now I want to download tons of Indian techno-pop and learn to dance. Because, why the hell not.

today was a good day and I didn't even have to use my AK

Scrambled eggs with mushrooms and peppers and onions in the morning, drinking coffee in the kitchen with Cate while the boys played. She's one of the few people who makes me thinking having children might be something I want one day.

Last night in the hot tub, we learned that her oldest boy knows the first few lines of "Baby Got Back." You have not known humor til you've heard a seven year old white boy and his little brother shout "I like big butts and I can not lie!"

Drinking the last of Gene's pale ale in a double old fashioned glass, windows open, music with harpsichords on, and it smells like summer. He took me out for a birthday dinner of Chinese food at the new place down the street, which was very lovely. He had the great Communist fortune, Union is Strength.

Driving home was peaceful, listening to Bjork and U2 while I waited out the traffic jam in San Marcos. My Matrix driving moment happened just south of the Buda exit, when a mattress flew off the roof of a car and towards me. Not a happy moment, by any stretch of the imagination. But I swerved in a remarkably calm manner, avoided the flying mattress and other vehicles, and continued on at seventy without a shift in gears. The mattress hit the road, and a large pickup truck ran over it, dragging it off to the side of the road. Traffic roared around.

It was a good day for driving, temperate and sunny, sky dappled with water bottomed cumulonimbus clouds. I entertained traffic jammed south of the river by singing along with U2's "Elevation" with my window down.

My mother left birthday presents on my porch, a card, a cake, a puzzle and a big green plant that will hopefully bloom odd flowers. I have a plant, and I am glad. It is good to have growing things around.

The Matrix Reloaded poster is up on the wall. If I could have a magical tattoo, I would have that green text on my back. It would shimmer and shift.

There are many reasons to be glad.

Deleted a lot old email today.

I survived despite you.